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Few raids of importance took place on any of the fronts. But British airmen descended upon German positions in Belgium on several occasions. Zeebrugge, Ostend, and Blankenberghe received their attention in a half dozen visits between February 5 and 20. On February 16, 1915, a large fleet of aeroplanes, mostly British, swept along the Flanders coast, attacking defensive positions wherever sighted.
The English fleet anchored off the coast between Blankenberghe and Heyst on the evening of June 23, and from the top of the dunes the English scouts saw in the distance the masts of the French ships in the Zwijn.
The German submarine base, it was noted, was located along the banks of a canal leading into the coast town of Blankenberghe -a waterway the Germans: had opened up after their occupation of Belgium. Jack Hammond got a rousing reception. The story of his escape from the Dewey and his bold adventure in the German wireless station had become known and he was roundly cheered.
In the following century the town of Scarphout, in West Flanders, was overwhelmed, and the inhabitants built a new town for themselves on higher ground, and called it Blankenberghe, which is now one of the most important watering-places on the coast.
One night, after a quiet day on patrol off the Belgian coast, the Dewey settled for the night close to shore at a point about five miles southwest of the Belgian coast town of Blankenberghe, a tiny fishing port with a small and almost land-locked harbor.
Large portions of this magnificent roadway, which is to be known as the 'Route Royale, have already been completed between Blankenberghe and Ostend, and from Ostend to Plage de Westende.
"I'll give you a bit of information that you probably don't know. In the Monitor when she was captured in the U-boat base below Blankenberghe -thanks to Mr. Hammond's courage and initiative -was found a complete chart of the approach to Zeebrugge. Mines, nets, and other impediments all marked off." "We think we have the key to the situation in that chart."
Of the short strip of Flemish coast, from near Knocke, past the fashionable modern bathing-places of Heyst, Blankenberghe, and Ostende, to a point beyond La Panne from border to border it measures roughly only some forty miles, and is almost absolutely straight I willingly say little, for it seems to me but a little thing when compared with this glorious inland wealth of architecture and painting.
On arriving next day off Blankenberghe, he learned that a formidable French squadron was anchored in the mouth of the Zwyn, and that he could only land in Flanders as the reward of victory. From the outbreak of hostilities in 1337, there had been a good deal of fighting by sea, and in the first stages of warfare the advantage lay with the French.
It was yet too dark to make her out, except for a dim blur that showed faintly against the background of the Belgian coast. By striking the Dewey's latitude and longitude they figured they were at a point five or six miles off Blankenberghe. "Where do you suppose she is heading for?" asked Cleary. He was plainly puzzled.
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